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My Rii RM300 wireless mouse had the default behaviour with back and forward on buttons 4 and 5 (not sure which number is which). I powered down and unplugged the USB receiver of the mouse to use it on another PC. On the original PC, I booted without the receiver and then plugged it in again, on the same USB port as before. The one mouse button now does nothing, and the other launches Windows Media Player.

I disabled Windows Media Player, and now it launches another media player I have installed (Zoom Player). When I stop the Human Interface Device Access in Windows Services, the media player isn't launched and the button does nothing. In both cases, XMBC doesn't detect these two buttons when I press them.

Rebooting and even uninstalling and re-installing the mouse didn't help.

XMBC v2.18.8 - installed today, after the problem started
Windows 7 Professional service pack 1 - no recent changes, last update was done a week before I unplugged the receiver.
Standard English keyboard.
Windows generic mouse device driver, it says it is the latest / best. (Microsoft driver v6.1.7600.16385)
I used EitherMouse 0.759 for a long time without any problems. Update to 0.81 didn't fix it. I have removed the other mouse, without effect.

Hi, does the mouse come with any software to configure the buttons? Some mice have onboard memory and some have multiple onboard profiles (my Logitech G9 for example has 3 profiles that can be configured by the Logitech software and the mouse retains this configuration and you can switch between the three profiles on any PC with or without the Logitech software installed) and this can be change the button behaviour - and the mouse remembers - so moving it between computers retains this configuration. So if it does have onboard memory, maybe when you used it on another PC, it's software changed the configuration and that has persisted when you have put it back on your PC?

If that is the case, you will need to install the mouse software that comes with the device, reconfigure the button to perform the default button action and then maybe it will work again with XMBC.

OK if its not hardware, check the drivers - is the driver in use the generic HID input device? If not, remove the driver and try and use the generic HID device (that's normally what you get by default so its probably already that).

In XMBC, when you press the buttons, do the corresponding dropdown boxes highlight in orange (I suspect that one is not highlighting (the button that does nothing)... I would be curious to know what the one that launches the media player does (does it highlight or not in XMBC)? If they do highlight, what are the buttons set to in XMBC? I'm not sure how you are launching the media player - is XMBC doing that or something else (I presume something else as you seem to be suggesting that the media player is launching unintentionally?). there may be some other software on your PC that is causing this behavior (as as far as I am aware, Windows itself can not configure these buttons differently). The problem would be finding that software - there is no easy way to inspect what software is hooking mouse buttons/messages - anything could be doing it in theory! Check what runs automatically on startup - the taskmanager "startup" tab can show you - and you could disable everything (and restart) see if that fixes it (close all other programs that you may have started too first) - if it does, re-enable one by one till you find the offending software - if that works, at least then you will know.

You could also create another user account and see if the problem persists in that (as it may be software/settings that only runs/applies to your account, or it may be global, all users).

I'm not sure what else to suggest!.
Good luck, and let me know if you find anything (as others may find that info useful if they ever suffer the same).

It is the generic driver, because apparently there is no specific driver for this mouse.

In XMBC, the left, middle and right mouse buttons change their dropdowns to orange, as well as wheel up and wheel down, but buttons 4 and 5 don't. Button 4 is set to "forward" and 5 to "back", but it has no effect, since XMBC doesn't detect the button press.

The media player launched even before I installed XMBC. Yes, it is unintentional, and changed "by itself", i.e. not by anything I did intentionally.

Whatever launches the media player seems to "block" those button press messages, so that XMBC doesn't detect them...

Thank you for the suggestions of another user and start-up programs, I'll try and let you know.

Steps taken and results:
1. I uninstalled the Zoom Player media player. Pressing the back button then led to a warning about running a DLL. I clicked "open with" and the name showed as shell32.dll.
2. I created another user (standard user, not admin) and logged in. It still wanted to launch shell32.dll.
3. Using msconfig.exe, I performed a "clean boot" with only Microsoft services enabled. (My antivirus also enabled itself.) It still wanted to launch shell32.dll. This means it is a Microsoft / Windows issue.
4. I did a normal reboot, then did a "diagnostic startup" using msconfig.exe. Only five services were enabled, of which three were for my antivirus and two for Microsoft. The back button on the mouse did nothing. The mouse driver has the same version number and date as normal, so I assume it is due to a service that is not running, and not due to a more basic driver.

I'll have to do a "binary search" and repeated reboot through all the services, but there are perhaps 70 for Microsoft alone (no wonder the PC takes its time to boot). So I'm hoping the shell32.dll is a clue to the suspect service?

Shell32.dll is a low level DLL that provides all sorts of APIs to running processes - just about every windows application will ink to and use shell32.dll - so I'm not sure thats the obvious key...

To be honest, I'm a little surprised it seems to be a Windows Service causing this - they usually run in a different (isolated) session (session 0) and should not interfere with GUI stuff much (not always the case though so it could be). They can of course launch processes into your user session so that could be related... I'd look more at the processes/applications running in your session (as your user ID) as they are more likely to be interfere with the mouse like this (exactly how XMBC does it).

Also, you could try reloading XMBC (and/or disabling it and re-enabling it) because that will cause it to re-install its hooks - and perhaps override any other hooks - its very much a first come first served - although kind'a in reverse, I believe the hooks work on a last registered, first called basis (oddly!) - its just possible that doing this will at least make XMBC see the buttons - but of course, it wont help tell you what other software is hooking them.

I missed that you were using Windows 7 (hence MSConfig and not the startup tab in task manager) but it seems you are doing the right things to narrow it down - I feel your pain, this certainly sounds like a nasty one to isolate and find, but I'm not sure I can offer much more advise ...

I uninstalled and installed XMBC, but it still doesn't detect buttons 4 and 5.

As time goes on, I'm unlearning the habit of using the back button on the mouse, thanks to the nuisance of something popping up when I do. It's not the first time that a behavioural change "solves" a problem instead of technology...

In addition, I've ordered a Genius Easypen I405X drawing tablet to try with my CAD work, so I might end up using the mouse a lot less.

When I originally posted, I was hoping someone in the community might have a suggestion. Instead, you helped way beyond XMBC support - I really appreciate it.